From cancer to COVID-19 : the self-fulfilling effects of illness mindsets on physical, social, and emotional functioning
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- The diagnosis of a chronic illness like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, or cancer is a life altering experience that can negatively affect a person's functioning. While chronic illnesses are physiologically complex, the negative repercussions are not entirely dictated by their biological reality; they are also profoundly shaped by psychological factors. Illness mindsets -- core assumptions about the nature and meaning of an illness - may be one such factor that influences physical, social, and emotional functioning. This line of research introduces illness mindsets (e.g., 'illness as a catastrophe', 'illness as manageable', 'illness as an opportunity') as a novel and clinically useful construct. The impact and importance of these mindsets are demonstrated across six studies. The first four studies (N = 1,234) describe the development and validation of a measure of illness mindsets (The IMI) and report on the internal consistency; convergent, discriminant, criterion, and incremental validity; and the test-retest reliability in healthy and chronically ill participants. In Study 5 (N = 325), I present findings from a pre-registered randomized controlled trial of a digital mindset intervention for recently diagnosed cancer patients. Compared to patients in the treatment-as-usual control condition, patients in the mindset intervention condition reported adaptive changes in their mindsets as well as significant and sustained improvements in physical, social, and emotional functioning over time. Finally, in Study 6 (N = 5,365), I apply the general theoretical framework of illness mindsets to understand the mindsets that people adopted about the COVID-19 pandemic. Results support our pre-registered hypothesis that mindsets formed at the start of the pandemic predict quality of life six months later via changes in affective and behavioral processes. These studies suggest that illness mindsets are a valid construct that can be reliably measured; they account for significant variance in the physical, social, and emotional functioning of people with chronic illness; they can be changed with psychologically wise interventions; and they are relevant in broader health contexts like the COVID-19 Pandemic. The implications of these findings and future directions of this line of work are discussed.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2021; ©2021 |
| Publication date | 2021; 2021 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Zion, Sean Raymond | |
|---|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Crum, Alia | |
| Thesis advisor | Crum, Alia | |
| Thesis advisor | Dweck, Carol S, 1946- | |
| Thesis advisor | Walton, Gregory M. (Gregory Mariotti) | |
| Degree committee member | Dweck, Carol S, 1946- | |
| Degree committee member | Walton, Gregory M. (Gregory Mariotti) | |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Psychology |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Sean Raymond Zion. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Psychology. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2021. |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/bz778jd8361 |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2021 by Sean Raymond Zion
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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